1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to an apparatus for adjusting the tension of an occupant restraining webbing which is employed in a seatbelt system designed to protect an occupant of a vehicle. More particularly, the invention pertains to a webbing tension adjusting apparatus which is capable of quickly decreasing the webbing tension when the webbing is unfastened.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
An automatic seatbelt system has heretofore been proposed in which an occupant restraining webbing has one of its ends secured to a door of a vehicle and the other end secured to the approximate center of the vehicle. In this seatbelt system, when an occupant of the vehicle opens the door, the webbing is wound off from a webbing retractor, and the end of the webbing secured to the door is moved toward the front end of the vehicle in response to the pivoting movement of the opening door. It is therefore possible for the occupant to be released from the webbing restrained condition when leaving the vehicle simply by opening the door. Further, when the occupant closes the door after entering the vehicle, the end of the webbing secured to the door is moved toward the rear end of the vehicle, and it is therefore possible for the occupant to be automatically fastened by the webbing simply by closing the door after seating himself.
This type of seatbelt system, however, suffers from the following problem. When the occupant opens the door for the purpose of leaving the vehicle, the webbing which is being wound off from the webbing retractor in response to the door opening operation moves and undesirably rubs against the clothes of the occupant.